Restaurant, event and warehouse businesses use the San Francisco-based firm’s app to post hourly gigs and pay workers. Canada is the company’s first international market. (The Logic)

Talking point: Instawork most recently raised a US$60-million Series C in July 2021. Backers include Benchmark’s Bill Gurley, a board member, also an early investor in Uber, which helped popularize the gig-marketplace business model. Demand for the category of workers Instawork targets has returned post-pandemic in its new markets—the number of people self-employed in accommodation and food services in urban cores was 7.4 per cent higher in British Columbia and 6.9 per cent in Ontario in February than the same month two years earlier, according to Statistics Canada data. Policymakers are considering updates to labour law to cover workers who get their assignments and paycheques from apps. The Ontario government proposed new regulations for gig work last month, although they’re designed for ride-hailing and food-delivery services and fall short of workers groups’ call to be recognized as employees.